M17 Omega Nebula - With New Normalization Tool

[JimFox]

Back in June I had the chance to do more imaging then I had time for processing, as I felt there could be some dry days up ahead where I would miss a month of imaging, and that was the case here. When I think it was @Comet Hunter Ed mentioned about some new Normalization tools he had used, I made sure to keep my eyes open on Lukomatico's YouTube channel as he is a great source for all new things processingwise for Astro. And sure enough this morning I saw a video, I watched it and made sure to download this new Narrowband Normalization Tool.

Please check out this video for all the links and a brief tutorial.

So once I saw I had to dig up something to process. I thought at first I would just reprocess one of my recent images, but then I remembered, or thought I remembered, that I had a couple of sessions I hadn't processed, so digging back to June in my Archives I found a set of images of M17, the Omega Nebula I had captured in Joshua Tree National Park.

I did my normal process flow on this, and once I removed the stars, I used the Narrowband Normalization Tool. I had been using this already in a sense as a script by Bill Blanshan, but getting it made into a tool makes it a million times more powerful as you can preview the adjustments for one, and the adjustments are easier to do.

82 - Lights at 60 secs with the Optolong L-Enhance Filter
30 - Flats
30 - Dark/Flats
10 - Darks

iOptron Gem28
ZWO ASI2600mc Pro
ZWO 120mm Mini - Guide Camera
Askar Fra500
Stacked in Pixinsight
BlurXterminator
NoiseXterminator
StarXterminator
Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop

All comments are welcome,

Jim

 

[Mike Lewis]

Jim,

Very nice, that new process is fun. I actually stumbled into it myself just the other day, watched the same YouTube video and installed the new process version. I had been previously playing with the scripts. it provides another tool to work on your color mix. Interestingly, I have found that in some cases I like what I get out of it, and in at least a couple of cases, I still like what I got with my previous 'mucking around with it incessantly until I have something I like' approach But always good to have more options, and the new process has a few more knobs to tweak than the scripts had.

So on to your image. I like the blue popping out and the faint details. Lots of interesting stuff in the bright center starting to come out too. Your FOV is wider than I got when I shot it and adds some more interesting 'stuff' to the image, very nice. The background looks a little 'grainy' (for lack of a better word) at this magnification, hard to judge better at this small size. Maybe it is noise? I sometimes find myself running a second pass of NoiseXTerminator later in my workflow as sometimes noise creeps back in with later stages of processing being applied. Considering the shorter overall integration time though this is quite an impressive result. It is really fun to think how far you have come with this stuff, you are definitely next 2 or 3 levels from where you started. Great job!

P.S. - So this is one reason you want to keep up on updating PixInsight. Of course, since this dropped there is now another new version. I expect to potentially address some of the problems that some folks had with the last version. As stated before, I had no such issues. I will let you know how the next install goes...

ML

 

[JimFox]

Hey Mike,

I did upgrade Pixinsight yesterday since they came out with another bug fix. It installed fine and works good. The only issue was that now the EZ Processing Suite by DarkArchon no longer works as he has decided to not upkeep it. The one tool in that suite that I used the most was the EZ Stretch. I found it to be such an invaluable tool to do the initial stretch and conversion to non-linear. I have some Stretch Scripts by Bill Blanshan that I can use, but as you referenced in regards to the Normalization, sometimes I like the way that those scripts stretch, and other times I don't. Experimentation is one of the fun aspects of Astro Processing.

I can still stretch manually, but I got spoiled with the Stretch tool in EZ Processing, it always worked. If you have any other simple stretching tools or scripts, I am all ears. What I liked most about the EZ Processing Stretch was it was easy to control the highlights from blowing out, while also having a control for the background. With M17, what I found out is that the core of it is pretty bright, which I found out while capturing it and that's one reason for the 60 second subs, so I didn't blow it out. But all of the normal stretching scripts I have, would blow out that center part. I spent an hour or more working back and forth with different stretching, to keep that core intact, and finally just had to go back to a totally manual stretch of it.

I will have to look at the background some more. I was so excited about the how the core of M17 turned out to be honest, my mind totally forgot about running a 2nd lighter noise reduction at the end. I usually will look to see if it needs it, in this case, I didn't even think about that. I will have to load it back up in Pixinsight and see if it's noise. I did want to keep more of the subtle detail in the back. It's funny, if this was 2 years ago, that background would be a solid black. But now I am at a place where I am liking more details in the background to add depth to the image.

As for the view, initially my intention was to crop tighter around M17, but after I did the initial HOO conversion, I loved the way it had gotten framed, so I left it as is from the camera. I could still crop later.

I think this one has turned into one of my new favorites. I am glad I hadn't processed this one yet, and had it in reserve for this little dry spell on imaging. I hope I can get out for a couple of days in another week.

Thanks!

 

[Comet Hunter]

looks like you got the hang of it. The new process, as I understand it is built in to the new Pixinsight version, which for me and my computer, still has too many bugs, (Even with the fix) but the Script version still works for me in the old version. I plan to wait a little while longer before I take the 2nd dive
Nicely done

 

[JimFox]

looks like you got the hang of it. The new process, as I understand it is built in to the new Pixinsight version, which for me and my computer, still has too many bugs, (Even with the fix) but the Script version still works for me in the old version. I plan to wait a little while longer before I take the 2nd dive
Nicely done

Thanks Ed.

They released another update, you might want to try that. I wonder is it easy to go backwards and reinstall an old version? Maybe @Mike Lewis knows.

 

[Bill Richards]

Looks spectacular, Jim!

 

[Comet Hunter]

Thanks Ed.

They released another update, you might want to try that. I wonder is it easy to go backwards and reinstall an old version? Maybe @Mike Lewis knows.

Yes, I did that already. That's why I have cold feet. It's not too bad.